REPORT Social Actors 2016

UPDATED, 9:04 PM: Actor Vin Diesel officially surpassed the 100M mark on Facebook tonight, a social media first for an actor. Where are the followers coming from? While the No. 1 fan base is the U.S., FB data shows where his 100M followers actually reside. Lately, he’s been sharing posts from the set of Fast 8. His most liked post has been one of him and his late co-star Paul Walker which garnered 7.7M likes. In the last 15 minutes, he has added over 1,000 more followers.

EXCLUSIVE, Previously Thursday, 11:26 AM: With actor Vin Diesel nearing over a social media milestone with 100M Facebook fans, it’s time to take a look at the Top 2016 actors/actresses in the social media universe. And, for the first time in the three years since we’ve incorporated this at Deadline, females have commanded the Top Three spots in the chart. This year, along with Facebook and Twitter, we have added in Instagram, the super-visual platform which has exploded in popularity so that we have an overall view of the social media universe (SMU).

Many actors/performers have, since last year, very quickly extended their fan base with Instagram, says social media intelligence company RelishMix which compiles the list each year for Deadline. Those power females include Selena Gomez (197M SMU), Ariana Grande (150.8M SMU), Lady Gaga (137.4M SMU) and Miley Cyrus (124.5M SMU).

As we have noted in the past, the social media footprint of a star is often considered in the casting of films: Social giants Selena Gomez, Justin Timberlake or Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson can use their Twitter, FB and Instagram feeds to give value added marketing for any upcoming film or TV project and they are particularly active in doing so to the delight of TV and feature film marketing teams.

In fact, Ellen DeGeneres used her social media footprint on Twitter to help launch Disney/Pixar’s animated family film Finding Dory this year and in a big way, posting short film takes and also repeatedly tweeting to her fans about the movie’s opening. Disney used Ellen’s SMU as a launching pad for many of the film’s promotional initiatives.

“As a movie or television marketer, you can’t make their social media imprint an afterthought,” said RelishMix’s Marc Karzen. “When it comes time to casting, you have to make sure ahead of time that your SMU strategy is in place because that can make an extreme impact on your campaigns. If you have a 50M SMU combined from the cast members, the difference in reach for your film or television show becomes crystal clear.”

Also, RelishMix notes that not all these social media stars are young. Jackie Chan with a 65.5M SMU is on the list as is Jason Statham with 61.8M SMU and Adam Sandler with 56.2M. Just on FB alone, Will Smith has a whopping 75.1M fan following. Let’s take a look at this year’s social media universe (garnered from looking at film and TV stars across the the last month). Because Nicki Minaj is not really a TV or film star yet (whereas Ariana Grande has appeared in both), we have not included her: